Back on July 17th, a gondola cabin at Tremblant collided with a piece of construction equipment. This resulted in the death of one person, and another individual being seriously hurt. It was unclear why this incident happened at the time, but we now know why it did.
The Toronto Star reports that Quebec labor board inspector Jean-Philippe Gaudreault found that incomplete construction procedures for moving machinery at Tremblant caused the deadly gondola accident.
His preliminary report from July 24th discovered that “there is no complete written procedure for moving construction machinery on the Mont Tremblant resort site.” In addition, the procedures that were in place weren’t known by every employee who worked around the gondola.
Here was one of Jean-Philippe Gaudreault’s key takeaways from the report, which was written on July 28th:
“Information obtained during the investigation shows that the conditions that led to the crash during the movement of the drill remain present on the site, as elements are missing from the written access procedure as well as in the communication to the parties.”
The construction vehicle that was involved was a drilling rig. This was being used to replace a snowmaking system on one of Tremblant’s ski trails. The report found that the rig’s windshield was damaged, which could’ve affected the operator’s eyesight, and the horn was broken, meaning the operator couldn’t alert people around the rig.
On July 24th, Jean-Philippe Gaudreault ordered the Quebec ski resort that they needed to improve their construction protocols before construction equipment could be used around the mountain again. He also forced the ski resort to “ensure that all accesses to the mountain are controlled and that the barriers cannot be bypassed by construction machinery.” That ban was lifted on August 4th after Tremblant updated its procedures.
In a statement to the Canadian Press, Tremblant spokeswoman Catherine Lacasse said that they’re working closely with authorities regarding the accident.
Image Credits: Tremblant
